1. Field of the Invention
The invention herein pertains to panel spacers which are used with wooden panels in such applications as paneled doors and particularly pertains to resilient spacers to prevent squeaks between panels and to provide a tight joint.
2. Description of the Prior Art And Objectives of the Invention
Wooden paneled doors have become increasingly popular with homeowners and builders in recent years causing a greater demand for spacers which are positioned between the panels in the connecting joints. Such spacers are used for centering solid panels, preventing panel rattle, and preventing cracking glue joints by taking up space between panels and providing frictional surfaces to immobilize the joints. Conventional spherical panel spacers are currently available which are resilient but only provide minimal surface contact along the edges of the panels when compressed. Such limited contact area provides, correspondingly, only limited friction to effect the purposes for which the older spherical spacers are used.
Thus, with the problems and disadvantages of prior art panel spacers, the present invention was conceived and one of its objectives is to provide a superiorly shaped resilient panel spacer to improve the effect and purposes of the spacer.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a panel spacer that allows a wider contact surface when compressed and, correspondingly, more friction between the edges of the panels than does the old spherically shaped spacer.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a panel spacer, the frictional surface area of which increases with increased compression.
It is also an objective of the present invention to provide a bi-frustum shaped panel spacer that more effectively centers panels and more effectively prevents panel rattle than does a spherically shaped spacer.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a panel joint utilizing the bi-frustum spacer in combination with the panels.
Various other objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art as a more detailed description is set forth below.